General Question

How can I get cold air to reach the ceiling?

Anyone else getting the heat wave? I installed the window AC into my 72-square-foot room yesterday and it takes less than a minute for the room to cool down. However, the ceiling is about 13 feet high and I have a loft bed that’s about 6 feet off the ground. When I climb up into the bed, it’s as hot as if there was no AC. It’s too hot for me, so is there anything I can do to get the cool air below to reach the loft bed height? My current solution is bringing the mattress to the ground, but I don’t want to keep doing this.

The best representation of where my bed is in comparison to the window is through this picture. The AC unit is on the bottom of the window and there’s about 3 feet between the window and the bed. The loft bed is 6 feet off of the ground and the AC is just less than 3 feet off the ground.

9 Answers

The easiest answer is to use a fan. If you have a ceiling fan, turn it on. If not, get either a floor fan or some sort of oscillating fan. Something to stir up the air. The colder air is more dense so it will naturally fall to the lowest areas. If you mix it up, all the air will eventually cool down.

Perhaps a box fan and some cardboard and duct tape to make sort of a tube that goes down to the floor (or at least where the cooler air is accumulating). If the fan was strong enough it could pull air from below and push it over your sleeping area.

I would definitely take the canopy off of the bed. Circulating air can’t get to the bed. If you can’t get a ceiling fan, I would get a circulating fan to keep the air moving. I have one like this that I use even with an air conditioner running.

Do you have a conditioned space above your room or is it an unconditioned attic? Is the ceiling well insulated in the attic space? Can you get an attic fan installed to circulate the air in the attic?

Is your window unit large enough to handle the entire volume of your room? They come in different capacities and it may be that it is inadequate. With 13 foot ceilings your room contains over 60% more volume than a room with standard 8’ ceilings.

If you don’t have a ceiling fan and want to install one be sure to put it on a down rod so it hangs a couple of feet below the ceiling and be sure to set the fan to turn counterclockwise at a higher rate of speed, this will pull air along the ceiling and direct it downward and in turn pull the cooler air up to the ceiling at the walls